Republic of China legislative election, 2008

The 7th Legislative elections were held on January 12, 2008 in the Republic of China (ROC, Taiwan). The results gave the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Pan-Blue Coalition a supermajority (86 of the 113 seats) in the legislature, handing a heavy defeat to then-President Chen Shui-bian's Democratic Progressive Party, which won the remaining 27 seats only. The junior partner in the Pan-Green Coalition, the Taiwan Solidarity Union, won no seats.

These elections elected the first set of legislators to serve a longer four-year term in the Legislative Yuan, after an amendment in the Constitution of the Republic of China in 2005, which intended to synchronize the legislative and presidential elections and reduce the size of the Legislative Yuan by half (see Republic of China National Assembly election, 2005). Two transitional justice referendums, both of which failed to pass due to low turnout, were held at the same time.

Legislature reform

For the first time in the history of the Republic of China, most members of the Legislative Yuan were to be elected from single-member districts: 73 of the 113 members were chosen in such districts by the plurality voting system (first-past-the-post). Parallel to the single member constituencies, 34 seats under an Additional Member System were elected in one national district by party-list proportional representation. For these seats, only political parties whose votes exceed a five percent threshold were eligible for the allocation. Six further seats were reserved for Taiwanese aborigines. Therefore, each elector had two ballots under parallel voting.

The aboriginal members were elected by single non-transferable vote in two 3-member constituencies for lowland aborigines and highland aborigines respectively. This did not fulfill the promise in the treaty-like document A New Partnership Between the Indigenous Peoples and the Government of Taiwan, where each of the 13 recognized indigenous peoples was to get at least one seat, and the distinction between highland and lowland abolished.

The breakdown by administrative unit was:^[1]

The delimitation of the single-member constituencies within the cities and counties was a major political issue, with bargaining between the government and the legislature. Of the 15 cities and counties to be partitioned (the ten others have only one seat), only seven of the districting schemes proposed by the CEC were approved in a normal way. The eight other schemes were decided by drawing lots: "Taipei and Taichung cities and Miaoli and Changhua counties will adopt the version suggested by the CEC, while Kaohsiung city will follow the consensus of the legislature. Taipei county will follow the proposal offered by the opposition Taiwan Solidarity Union, Taoyuan county will adopt the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s scheme, and Pingtung county will use the scheme agreed upon by the Non-partisan Solidarity Union, People First Party, Kuomintang and Taiwan Solidarity Union."^[2]

Impact of the electoral system

The elections were the first held under a new electoral system which had been approved by both major parties in constitutional amendments adopted in 2005, but which one political scientist has argued favored the KMT. The rules are set up so that every county has at least one seat, which gave a higher representation for smaller counties in which the KMT traditionally has done well. Northern counties tend to be marginally in favor of KMT, whereas southern counties tend to be strongly for DPP, and the single member system limits this advantage. The partially led to the result that the legislative count was highly in favor of the KMT while the difference in the number of votes cast for the KMT and DPP were less dramatic.^[3]

It was considered possible that the Republic of China presidential election, 2008 would be held on the same day as this election, but this was eventually not the case, with the presidential happening 10 weeks later, in March. Two referendums were held on the same date.

Results

1. ^ The results of the election have been released by the Central Election Commission of the Republic of China [1] (pdf)
2. ^ This is the first legislative election in the Republic of China in which voters cast separate ballots for constituency and party list candidates. In past elections, voters cast only a constituency ballot, and party list allocation was determined by the total constituency votes that each party received. Due to limited comparability between this election and past elections, an increase / decrease comparison is made here for: constituency votes received in 2004 vs 2008 and percentage of total seats in outgoing legislature vs incoming legislature in 2008.
3. ^ In a pre-election agreement, the Kuomintang and the People First Party agreed to register most PFP constituency candidates as KMT candidates, and nominate a common KMT party list, in order to prevent splitting of the Pan-Blue vote. The PFP won one aboriginal seat it contested under its own name, five constituency seats contested under the KMT banner, and three seats within the KMT party list.
4. ^ Under New Party direction, all New Party legislators in the outgoing legislature had joined the KMT, and New Party members ran as KMT candidates with New Party endorsement in this election. The New Party ran only party list candidates in this election but failed to pass the 5% threshold.
5. ^ The NPSU is formally neither part of the Pan-Blue or Pan-Green coalition, but its members tend to ally themselves with the pan-Blue coalition, and were endorsed by the KMT in this election.
6. ^ Chen Fu-hai of Kinmen, the lone independent elected in this election, is a former KMT member and endorses the KMT presidential campaign. Hence the strength of the Pan-Blue coalition is taken as 86. (see here) The outgoing independent is Li Ao, who while refusing ally with either coalition, usually voted with pan-Blue.
7. ^ Total ballots cast. The turnout was 58.28 % for the party-list ballots and 58.5 % for the constituency ballots. In addition to the parties above, the following minor parties did not contest party list seats and did not win constituency seats: Dadao Compassion Jishih Party, Democratic Freedom Party, Hongyun Jhongyi Party, World Peace Party.

Legislators elected through constituency and aborigine ballots

• Notes:

1. Candidates marked are People First Party candidates running under the KMT party banner.
2. Candidates marked are New Party candidates who joined the Kuomintang with New Party endorsement.
3. Most names on the list follow the Tongyong Pinyin romanization used in the Central Election Committee website and may not accurately reflect the candidates' preferred romanization of their name.

Legislators elected through nationwide constituency and overseas Chinese ballots

• Notes:

1. Candidates marked with a ^ are overseas Chinese candidates.
2. Elected candidates are marked with a next to their name.
3. Candidates with are People First Party candidates running on a joint ticket with the Kuomintang^[4]。
4. Green Party Taiwan candidate Wang Fang Ping is endorsed by the coalition Raging Citizens Act Now! (人民火大行動聯盟)^[5]。
5. Most names on the list follow the Tongyong Pinyin romanization used in the Central Election Committee website and may not accurately reflect the candidates' preferred romanization of their name.

Impact

With this election the KMT and the Pan-Blue Coalition have more than the two-thirds majority needed to propose a recall election of the President and if NPSU votes are counted with the pan-Blue coalition, more than the three-quarters majority needed to propose constitutional amendments. However, KMT officials have denied that there are plans to do either saying that they intend on using their legislative power responsibly.

Reaction from the People’s Republic of China

The Government of the People's Republic of China, which claims sovereignty over Taiwan, remained largely silent on the election result. State media carried brief updates of results and passed no comment on either the referendum or the Kuomintang victory.^[6]

The People’s Republic of China appointed 13 representatives for Taiwan to its own National People's Congress on the same day. These delegates are mostly descendants of Taiwanese who emigrated to the Mainland, or Communist supporters who fled Taiwan. Their positions are ceremonial as the PRC do not exercise effective jurisdiction over Taiwan.^[7]

External links

• Results of the legislative election from the Central Election Commission
• BBC News (2008-01-12): Kuomintang in huge win
• BBC News (2008-01-11): Battle lines drawn in Taiwan vote
• The World Next Week by Oxford Analytica (2008-01-10): Taiwan: year of the thaw?

References